The last witch of Langenburg: murder in a German village /

Author

Robisheaux, Thomas Willard.

Language

English

Publisher

New York: W.W. Norton, 2009

Annotation:

Exploring one of Europe's last witch panics, historian Thomas Robisheaux brings to life the story of an entire world caught between superstition and modernity in a high-stakes drama that led to charges of sorcery and witchcraft against an entire family.

Subjects :

Reviews :

Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)
Duke historian Robisheaux turns the obscure story of a smalltown German woman convicted of witchcraft into a marvelous window onto a society in crisis. On Shrove Tuesday, 1672, Eva Küstner delivered Shrovetide cakes baked by her mother to her neighbor, Anna Fessler, who was still recuperating from the birth of her child a few weeks earlier. A few days after eating some of the cakes, Anna died a painful death. Almost immediately, the community accused Eva and her mother, Anna Schmeig, of witchcraft. In this fast-paced account, Robisheaux chronicles the roles that various ministers, lawyers and physicians play in the indictment of Anna Schmeig and her immediate family. Robisheaux shows that Schmeig’s trial and execution as a witch grew out of a small village’s superstitions and its belief in the power of God to transform an evil event into an exemplary one. Drawing on rich records of the trials of Schmeig and her family, Robisheaux finely crafts a vivid glimpse of a time, place and state of mind that, though remote, is all too familiar. 22 illus., 3 maps. (Feb.)\n"
(PUBLISHER: W.W. Norton (New York:), PUBLISHED: c2009.)